We all gain in the company of women

The cause of women’s equality has made some huge gains over the past few decades. Thanks to the efforts of countless campaigners we’ve seen discrimination removed, and opportunities increased.

But there is still work to be done – as can be seen in the recent Bain/Chief Executive Women survey, which showed that many senior businessmen cannot see financial benefits in workplace gender parity. Also, earlier this month we saw former Victorian treasurer
Alan Stockdale
attack the Business Council of Australia for prioritising gender equity on boards. For Stockdale, gender balance is “important", but “not one of the top 50 issues".

This is more than just a strange thing to say. It’s a mistake – a costly mistake – and one that too many senior business figures are still making after too many years.

Gender equity is not an issue you get to if you have the time; nor is it a problem that will go away by itself. Meaningful change requires will and effort – the kind put in by the BCA and many others who have recognised that without change in this area, we will all be poorer.

Women make up more than half our population, and more than half of university graduates each year.

Enormous battles for recognition and equity have been fought and won over the past 150 years, and women make a valuable contribution to every aspect of our public and private lives. But when we turn to our nation’s boardrooms, we see a very different picture indeed.

According to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, women make up 13 per cent of the directors on the boards of ASX 200 companies. And by the way, 2010 was a good year, with 59 female appointments.

About 2.5 per cent of chairpersons are women, as are 3 per cent of chief executives. Clearly, a good year by today’s standards is not good enough.

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No one wants their daughter to grow up thinking that certain aspirations are less available to her than to her brothers. But apart from the question of justice, this drastic imbalance represents a real loss of value that is bad for women, bad for companies, and bad for the country.

The world today is more connected, more competitive, and changes faster than ever before. We need to work smarter, cleaner and more efficiently to compete in the emerging global economy.

Innovation is therefore more important than it has ever been, which means the premium today is on ideas and creativity. Boards can simply no longer afford to do without the perspectives, judgments, experiences and ideas of half the population. Diversity adds value.

The Bracks and Brumby governments in Victoria knew this, and knew it was no good just sitting back and hoping things would improve. When we came to office, women chaired just 12 per cent of government boards, and made up 31 per cent of government boards and committees. We set a goal of 40 per cent, and achieved that in 2008, at which time we increased the target to 50 per cent. By way of comparison, the proportion of women on federal government boards is still about 34 per cent.

We also set up the Victorian Women’s Register – an avenue for women to express interest in serving on a government board. Women now chair 29 per cent of government boards, and by our last year of office four of Victoria’s eight departmental secretaries were women.

We saw some real change in Victoria – but it required real effort. And that’s always been the case. The ASX recently introduced new recommendations for listed companies to set, and report on, gender diversity goals. Why did this happen? Because forward thinking business people, alongside women’s groups, vigorously promoted the idea that gender equity is important – goals need to be set, and results measured.

This kind of change doesn’t happen by evolution or chance; and it won’t continue without a clear understanding that gender equity in business is in everybody’s interest.

Comments such as Stockdale’s are an unhelpful throwback to the past, and reveal a basic misunderstanding of the nature of business today.

The BCA, and all Australian companies, should be talking more, not less, about gender equity – and more importantly, acting to bring it about.